New Attitude Aids Cocoa Community

December 9, 1985|By John J. Glisch of The Sentinel Staff

COCOA — In January 1983 the neighborhood around Poinsett Drive almost blew apart at the seams.

Fed up with high unemployment, poverty and what they felt was police harassment, black residents of several low-income apartment buildings turned on officers making drug arrests and pelted them with bottles and rocks.

The situation cooled after two tense days, but not before leaders of the black community called for immediate help in establishing job programs and recreation facilities for the area's youths.

Almost three years later, residents and police report some progress in the neighborhood's plodding war to upgrade itself, a battle residents measure in small wins, not great victories.

''Overall, it's been an improvement,'' said Jackie Mole, a black former Cocoa city council member who owns Cocoa Palms Apartments and has tried to start job programs. ''But there is still so much to be done. We want outsiders to know we want help to help ourselves.''

At first glance, Poinsett Drive has changed little. Much of the housing is still run down, although efforts are under way to secure federal and private loans for remodeling some apartment buildings.

Residents say unemployment remains stubbornly high, far above the 4.4 percent countywide level. Many households are headed by women and survive only through government assistance.

But one significant shift that has occurred in the neighborhood is how residents feel about police. It is a turnaround many would have thought impossible.

''I think the biggest change in the two and a half years I've been here is that the attitude of the people has changed,'' said Thomas O'Connell, Cocoa police chief. ''Residents ask us to come in there, park the cars and walk around.''

That situation has been credited by police with helping reduce drug sales that were made openly on neighborhood streets. Officers no longer are apprehen- sive about going into what had been hostile territory.

''It doesn't seem to be the hot spot it was even a year ago,'' Cocoa police Capt. Ozzie Carlton said about drug sales. ''The people are pulling together and assisting us.''

While police and residents know the drug problem will never be totally solved, enough has been accomplished to make the neighborhood feel a concrete effort is being made to rid the area of crime.

Charlie Culver, owner of Jordan Apartments, said residents must continue to ''keep the fire burning'' in their relationship with police and not let past gains slip away. He said police and residents have held four meetings in the past two months.

Residents also have formed a tenants association to discuss neighborhood ills and seek solutions.

Drug dealing remains a problem around Poinsett Drive and can lead to violence. Six months ago a 21-year-old sailor from Jacksonville was robbed and killed after a drug buy. Another drug-related killing took place in March 1983.

While better relations between police and residents are noteworthy, attempts to establish job programs have fallen flat. For example, Mole said he approached representatives of McDonnell Douglas Corp. two years ago about starting job-training sessions in the neighborhood but never got a response. Efforts to form a trade school also failed, he said.

Mole and others are angry that the city plans to spend $100,000 on a neighborhood park, a move they call cosmetic while more serious problems are ignored. Mole said a small playground would be sufficient with the remaining money better spent on job programs.

''This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of in my life, like, 'If we let you play that will keep you happy,' '' he said.

Mole and others also are worried the park will attract more drug dealers who will use it as a convenient place to do business.

Mole intends to keep fighting for job programs. He is pushing an idea called the Brevard Target Area Community Development Corp., a non-profit organization that would hire 10 workers from the neighborhood to rehabilitate housing.

But getting the necessary money could prove difficult. Mole said the project needs $500,000, most of which would come from donations by corporations which could use the gifts for tax credits. He is asking for $50,000 from the city. Despite the hurdles, he remains optimistic.

''I think it's going to be easy once people realize the benefits of such a program,'' he said. ''What reflects on this area reflects on all of Cocoa.''